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NewsIntel Ups The SSD Ante With 32GB, 32nm Flash Chips

Posted 11/25/08 at 02:08:12 PM by Andy Salisbury

Intel and their memory-producing partner, Micron, have recently started mass-producing the first of their 34nm NAND flash memory. The smaller chips allow the two companies behind them to make single chip layers with 4GB of storage. This paves the way for two layer stacks that can hold as many as 64GB.

This new and improved flash memory is currently being aimed at portable electronics such as cell phones or MP3 players. What’s even better, is the possibility of a substantial increase in size of solid-state drives! And it shouldn’t be too far off, either. Thanks to their speedy manufacturing they’re currently looking to implement the first wave of chips in early 2009.

It’s expected that one of the first companies to take advantage of the tiny chips is Apple, who has been stuck at a 32GB storage ceiling on the popular iPhone and iPod touch.

Comments: 1
TAGS: intel, hardware, flash memory, consumer electronics, ssd, micron

NewsDSLR Compact Flash Users, Get Into the SD/SDHC (and Eye-Fi) Game with CFMulti

Posted 10/20/08 at 03:32:52 PM by Mark Edward Soper

CFMulti brings SD, SDHC, and Eye-Fi support to some CF-based DSLRs

If you're a Compact Flash user, life's not been fair to you lately. You've seen CF stalwarts like Nikon and Canon turn their backs on this longtime favorite in favor of the new kid on the block, SDHC, in their newest DSLRs. Buy a new camera, and you make your collection of CF cards obsolete. Meanwhile, you've watched SDHC and its kid brother, SD, dominate the deals in your favorite big-box electronics superstores' weekly tabloids. And, just to add a cherry on the top of your cake of frustration, you've been thinking about how cool it would be to use wireless file transfer with Eye-Fi cards, but Eye-Fi is also in the tank for SD. Oh, and did I mention that "Compact" Flash is now the bulkiest flash memory format?

For all these reasons, Synchrotech's introduction of the CFMulti CompactFlash Type II to Eye-Fi + Multi-Card Adapter has come at a very good time. While CF adapters for SD cards have been around for awhile, the CFMulti also supports newer flavors such as SDHC and MMC+ as well as SD and any old MultiMediaCards (MMC) you have floating around. Plus, it's the first adapter to support Eye-Fi cards, albeit with a reduction in range. See the CFMulti and Eye-Fi FAQ for details and a list of tested cameras.

For more thoughts on the advantages of adding CFMulti to your gadget bag, and your chance to comment, join us after the jump.

Comments: 0
TAGS: adapter, digital photography, digital imaging, flash memory, consumer electronics, SDHC, SD, cf, CFMulti, Synchrotech, Compact Flash, MMC, MMC+

NewsSamsung Sticks to Original Takeover Offer

Posted 09/18/08 at 02:10:00 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Samsung Electronics vindicated rumors about its interest in acquiring SanDisk by publicly making a takeover bid on Tuesday. But SanDisk quickly rejected the takeover bid, which valued it at $5.85 billion - $26 per share, citing its 52-week high of $55/share.

But Samsung wasted little time in readying its response. Samsung’s CEO Yoon-Woo Lee reiterated his company’s original offer in a missive sent to SanDisk’s board. “The world has changed dramatically in the past 52 weeks as can be seen from SanDisk's own disappointing results,” he astutely derided SanDisk’s allusion to its 52-week high.

He called their attention to the fact that the offer is a “premium of 80% over your closing share price on September 15, 2008, and a 66% and 164% premium to your 30-day weighted average price and enterprise value as of September 4, 2008, respectively.”

This is going to be a game of cat and mouse just like the drama that played itself out between Microsoft and Yahoo; and EA and Take 2.

Comments: 0
TAGS: samsung, Sandisk, hardware, flash memory

ColumnsFlash in the Pan

Posted 08/13/08 at 01:40:41 PM by Tom Halfhill

Flash memory could become the dominant form of mass storage, replacing magnetic and optical media for many purposes. Although flash retains data without requiring power, the memory cells don’t retain their charges forever. Eventually, the charges dissipate and the bits fade away. Will our data be a flash in the pan?

Consider the trends. USB thumb drives are commonplace, and solid-state drives (SSDs) are appearing in subnotebook computers like the Asus Eee PC and Macintosh Air. SSDs are still too expensive to replace conventional drives in desktop PCs, but some hard drives use small amounts of flash to store startup data, which shortens boot times.

Continue reading after the jump!

Comments: 0
TAGS: usb, flash, fast forward, flash memory, columns, ssd

NewsEye-Fi Wireless SD Cards Get More Social, Easier to Buy

Posted 07/24/08 at 09:05:47 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Eye-Fi partners with Nikon, Adobe, Circuit City

We first looked at the Eye-Fi wireless SD flash memory card back in February, and liked its easy uploading and support for photo-sharing sites like Flickr. Now, there are three different models of Eye-Fi cards, new partnerships with Nikon's my Picturetown and Adobe's Photoshop Express give you more ways to share your photos, and you can now find Eye-Fi cards at Circuit City. To learn more about what's new with Eye-Fi, catch us after the jump.

Comments: 1
TAGS: digital photography, web 2.0, flash memory, consumer electronics, Social Networking, SD, Eye-Fi, wireless SD, my Picturetown

NewsReducing Thumbdrives' Security Risk

Posted 07/11/08 at 04:56:55 PM by Mark Edward Soper

USB thumdrives are big security risk - here's help

Investor's Business Daily says "Hackers always are on the lookout for the most vulnerable spot on your personal computers. These days, that weakest link might be your flash thumb drive." They're easy to exploit by malware and easy to lose. How do you cope with the security risks and potential data loss of the humble thumbdrive? Are you encrypting your thumbdrives?

For a closer look at thumbdrive security, and a chance to give us your tips, see us after the jump.

Comments: 0
TAGS: Security, usb, malware, flash memory, thumbdrive, data loss, prevention

NewsEcoRAM Set to Cut Power Consumption in Data Centers

Posted 06/27/08 at 12:10:46 PM by Chris Moody

Spansion, a joint venture of AMD and Fujitsu has revealed a new class of memory, called EcoRAM, which is designed to solve the growing energy consumption crisis in Internet data centers, by replacing power-hungry DRAM in data center servers. When it is combined with Virident Systems, Inc.'s new GreenGateway technology EcoRAM can help slash energy consumption by up to 75 percent in Internet data center servers, and offer four times the memory capacity of traditional DRAM-only servers for the same energy consumption.

Make the jump to read more about EcoRAM!